Unpaving paradise

A McMaster University parking lot will scale back more than 300 spaces to create a 30-metre buffer between the asphalt and a local creek.

Parking lot M is located off Cootes Drive next to Ancaster Creek and at present, it can accommodate more than 1,300 vehicles.

The move comes after a campus environmental group called Restore Cootes urged university officials to create a naturalized buffer at the lot, because a campus master plan calls for such buffers and the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority requires a 30-metre buffer when new parking lots are constructed.

Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s director of public and community relations, says 200 spaces in the same area — previously out of use because of a construction project — will be put back in circulation, lessening the impact of the move. He said more than 1,400 staff and students have transponders allowing them to use the lot, but the usage is spread out over the week and not everyone wants to use the lot at the same time.

Arbeau said he does not know the final cost of removing the asphalt and naturalizing the landscape.

Restore Cootes has been leading an ongoing series of Ponds to Parking history-hikes since last December that raised awareness about the issue of parking lots affecting natural areas that used to be ponds, streams and wetlands, said spokesperson Randy Kay.

Creating the buffer is “a small but significant step toward a goal of full rehabilitation of the floodplain that was previously known as the Royal Botanical Gardens’ Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary, paved over in the late 1960s when McMaster took over the RBG property,” the environmental group said in a statement.

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Guest Blogger: Carly Stephens Since its inception, Parking to Paradise has been a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. Many readers are familiar with the Ancaster Creek riparian buffer and restoration work along the Northwest border of the parking lot. Interested parties across many faculties and disciplines have worked together to restore this ecosystem and raise awareness about the impacts urbanization on the natural environment. Nurtured by the time, commitment and hard work donated by volunteers and students, the land has grown into a site of green infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable development. Read about Reyna Matties' Master’s work on retrofitting storm water management systems on the lot in the December 7, 2015 post below. Now, it’s the social sciences turn to learn where green infrastructure developments - as with the case of Lot M - fits into our social world.

My research involves exploring the various roles that green space plays in our urb…

Urbanization displaces and degrades ecosystems that are critical for humans, animals, and plants. Sustainable urban development has become a priority in the challenge to re-design our ageing infrastructure. Working to coexist peacefully with the surrounding environment will increase sustainability. As a graduate student of Biology at McMaster University, I am studying the applied ecology and hydrology of a parking lot system (Lot M). Ancaster Creek, a rare cold-water ecosystem, runs along Lot M and is part of an essential wildlife corridor for native species such as salmon, turtle, and deer. Together with Dr. Susan Dudley, I am working to retrofit the stormwater management of the system to minimize the impact of contaminants and runoff into the creek.

One method of achieving this goal is through increasing and restoring the land next to the creek. This is called a riparian buffer, which protects the system by providing habitat for animals, increasing sto…